The Gay Youth Corner / The GYC (2020-)

The GYC is an online community for LGBTQ+ youth. Started in 2004 by Hamish Priest (an 'AOL buddy' of mine in the late 90's), who now works for Google. It became one of the most popular gay youth websites in the mid to late 2000's. The site was eventually closed due to privacy concerns, abuse of power and illicit activities at the hands of their moderators.

As a closeted bicurious teen in the early 2000's, I was a registered member on the site between 2005 and 2010. I finally found a place where I was accepted, during a time when being anything other than straight was deemed unusual alongside the fear of inherited discrimination — unlike the level of LGBTQ+ acceptance there is today.

The website was revived by myself in 2020 with the focus of creating the same safe space for a new generation of LGBTQ+ youth.

The website went through several iterations and changes under my tenture. All in a bid to improve the user experience and entice new users to join. My role was to provide an intuitive UI that wouldn't require learning, used with confidence from the get-go, and could be accessed on a variety of devices, on a fast, fluid and efficient speedy U.K. cloud server. I was also responsible for curating new members, creating T&C's and creating posts, ergo generating interest on The GYC's social media pages.

I'd also developed apps which became available to download free on the Apple and Google Play (Android) app stores. These were eventually taken down in 2022 due to rising annual developer membership costs.

In the four years of the website being live, the website has accumulating over 200 active users.

The logos included were created by me (despite some inspiration from the prior eras). The entire project was funded by myself.

Website: https://thegyc.org

Videos: https://bit.ly/4fZhyY7

The GYC apps: https://is.gd/FI2Hpz

View on Behance: https://bit.ly/4ehSHNV